Relationships among climatological vertical moisture structure, column water vapor, and precipitation over the central Amazon in observations and CMIP5 models
Abstract
Abstract Bias and spread in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 simulated vertical specific humidity ( q ) structure are examined and related to both precipitation and column water vapor (cwv) near Manaus, Brazil, site of the recent Green Ocean Amazon campaign. Simulated seasonal mean q profiles are typically too dry, especially at low levels and during the local dry season, consistent with previously identified surface hydroclimate biases in the Amazon. Multimodel empirical orthogonal function analysis of the models' monthly climatological q profiles indicates two significant modes of ensemble spread in moisture vertical structure, with the leading mode peaked at low levels and the second mode in the lower free troposphere (LFT). While both modes project onto simulated cwv spread, only the first projects on precipitation, suggesting inconsistent sensitivity of simulated rainfall to LFT moisture. Relative to observations, models with high cwv and low‐level moisture errors tend to exhibit high precipitation error.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
[3];
[1];
[4];
[3]
- Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ (United States). Dept. of Environmental Sciences
- Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City (Mexico). Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
- Fundação Centro de Análise, Manaus (Brazil). Pesquisa e Inovação Tecnológica Faculdade Fucapi
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1465343
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1402141
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0011069; SC0011074; AGS-1505198; DE‐SC0011069; DE‐SC0011074
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 44; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Amazon; vertical moisture structure; precipitation; column water vapor; CMIP5 models
Citation Formats
Lintner, Benjamin R., Adams, David K., Schiro, Kathleen A., Stansfield, Alyssa M., Amorim Rocha, Alciélio A., and Neelin, J. David. Relationships among climatological vertical moisture structure, column water vapor, and precipitation over the central Amazon in observations and CMIP5 models. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/2016GL071923.
Lintner, Benjamin R., Adams, David K., Schiro, Kathleen A., Stansfield, Alyssa M., Amorim Rocha, Alciélio A., & Neelin, J. David. Relationships among climatological vertical moisture structure, column water vapor, and precipitation over the central Amazon in observations and CMIP5 models. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071923
Lintner, Benjamin R., Adams, David K., Schiro, Kathleen A., Stansfield, Alyssa M., Amorim Rocha, Alciélio A., and Neelin, J. David. Sat .
"Relationships among climatological vertical moisture structure, column water vapor, and precipitation over the central Amazon in observations and CMIP5 models". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071923. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1465343.
@article{osti_1465343,
title = {Relationships among climatological vertical moisture structure, column water vapor, and precipitation over the central Amazon in observations and CMIP5 models},
author = {Lintner, Benjamin R. and Adams, David K. and Schiro, Kathleen A. and Stansfield, Alyssa M. and Amorim Rocha, Alciélio A. and Neelin, J. David},
abstractNote = {Abstract Bias and spread in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 simulated vertical specific humidity ( q ) structure are examined and related to both precipitation and column water vapor (cwv) near Manaus, Brazil, site of the recent Green Ocean Amazon campaign. Simulated seasonal mean q profiles are typically too dry, especially at low levels and during the local dry season, consistent with previously identified surface hydroclimate biases in the Amazon. Multimodel empirical orthogonal function analysis of the models' monthly climatological q profiles indicates two significant modes of ensemble spread in moisture vertical structure, with the leading mode peaked at low levels and the second mode in the lower free troposphere (LFT). While both modes project onto simulated cwv spread, only the first projects on precipitation, suggesting inconsistent sensitivity of simulated rainfall to LFT moisture. Relative to observations, models with high cwv and low‐level moisture errors tend to exhibit high precipitation error.},
doi = {10.1002/2016GL071923},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 4,
volume = 44,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Feb 18 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Sat Feb 18 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Moisture Vertical Structure, Column Water Vapor, and Tropical Deep Convection
journal, June 2009
- Holloway, Christopher E.; Neelin, J. David
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 66, Issue 6
The GPS Radio Occultation Technique
journal, January 2000
- Kursinski, E. Robert; Hajj, George A.; Leroy, Stephen S.
- Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Vol. 11, Issue 1
Patterns of Precipitation Change and Climatological Uncertainty among CMIP5 Models, with a Focus on the Midlatitude Pacific Storm Track
journal, October 2015
- Langenbrunner, Baird; Neelin, J. David; Lintner, Benjamin R.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 28, Issue 19
Moisture–convection feedback in the tropics
journal, October 2004
- Grabowski, W. W.; Moncrieff, M. W.
- Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 130, Issue 604
Introduction: Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5)
journal, January 2016
- Martin, S. T.; Artaxo, P.; Machado, L. A. T.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 16, Issue 8
Deep Convection and Column Water Vapor over Tropical Land versus Tropical Ocean: A Comparison between the Amazon and the Tropical Western Pacific
journal, October 2016
- Schiro, Kathleen A.; Neelin, J. David; Adams, David K.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 73, Issue 10, p. 4043-4063
Drought sensitivity of Amazonian carbon balance revealed by atmospheric measurements
journal, February 2014
- Gatti, L. V.; Gloor, M.; Miller, J. B.
- Nature, Vol. 506, Issue 7486
Temporal Relations of Column Water Vapor and Tropical Precipitation
journal, April 2010
- Holloway, Christopher E.; Neelin, J. David
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 67, Issue 4
The North American Monsoon GPS Transect Experiment 2013
journal, November 2016
- Serra, Yolande L.; Adams, David K.; Minjarez-Sosa, Carlos
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 97, Issue 11
GNSS observations of deep convective time scales in the Amazon: GNSS DEEP CONVECTIVE TIME SCALES
journal, June 2013
- Adams, D. K.; Gutman, Seth I.; Holub, Kirk L.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 11
Sampling Errors in the Estimation of Empirical Orthogonal Functions
journal, July 1982
- North, Gerald R.; Bell, Thomas L.; Cahalan, Robert F.
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 110, Issue 7
Global Precipitation: A 17-Year Monthly Analysis Based on Gauge Observations, Satellite Estimates, and Numerical Model Outputs
journal, November 1997
- Xie, Pingping; Arkin, Phillip A.
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 78, Issue 11
Global radiosonde balloon drift statistics
journal, January 2011
- Seidel, Dian J.; Sun, Bomin; Pettey, Michael
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116, Issue D7
An Overview of CMIP5 and the Experiment Design
journal, April 2012
- Taylor, Karl E.; Stouffer, Ronald J.; Meehl, Gerald A.
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 93, Issue 4
AGCM Precipitation Biases in the Tropical Atlantic
journal, March 2006
- Biasutti, M.; Sobel, A. H.; Kushnir, Y.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, Issue 6
A new satellite retrieval method for precipitable water vapor over land and ocean
journal, January 2007
- Deeter, Merritt N.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 34, Issue 2
Characterizing CMIP5 model spread in simulated rainfall in the Pacific Intertropical Convergence and South Pacific Convergence Zones: SPREAD IN CMIP5 RAINFALL
journal, October 2016
- Lintner, Benjamin R.; Langenbrunner, Baird; Neelin, J. David
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 121, Issue 19
The Transition to Strong Convection
journal, August 2009
- Neelin, J. David; Peters, Ole; Hales, Katrina
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 66, Issue 8
Precipitation Characteristics in Eighteen Coupled Climate Models
journal, September 2006
- Dai, Aiguo
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, Issue 18
Temperature–Moisture Dependence of the Deep Convective Transition as a Constraint on Entrainment in Climate Models
journal, April 2012
- Sahany, Sandeep; Neelin, J. David; Hales, Katrina
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 69, Issue 4
Deep convective cloud-top heights and their thermodynamic control during CRYSTAL-FACE
journal, January 2004
- Sherwood, Steven C.
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 109, Issue D20
A Spatiotemporal Water Vapor–Deep Convection Correlation Metric Derived from the Amazon Dense GNSS Meteorological Network
journal, January 2017
- Adams, David K.; Barbosa, Henrique M. J.; Gaitán De Los Ríos, Karen Patricia
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 145, Issue 1
How well can CMIP5 simulate precipitation and its controlling processes over tropical South America?
journal, November 2012
- Yin, Lei; Fu, Rong; Shevliakova, Elena
- Climate Dynamics, Vol. 41, Issue 11-12
Critical phenomena in atmospheric precipitation
journal, May 2006
- Peters, Ole; Neelin, J. David
- Nature Physics, Vol. 2, Issue 6
Representing Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Convection in Large-Scale Models
journal, February 2014
- Bechtold, Peter; Semane, Noureddine; Lopez, Philippe
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 71, Issue 2
Present-day and future Amazonian precipitation in global climate models: CMIP5 versus CMIP3
journal, January 2013
- Joetzjer, E.; Douville, H.; Delire, C.
- Climate Dynamics, Vol. 41, Issue 11-12
Overview of the Large-Scale Biosphere–Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia Data Model Intercomparison Project (LBA-DMIP)
journal, December 2013
- de Gonçalves, Luis Gustavo Gonçalves; Borak, Jordan S.; Costa, Marcos Heil
- Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 182-183
Analysis of rainfall seasonality from observations and climate models
journal, August 2014
- Pascale, Salvatore; Lucarini, Valerio; Feng, Xue
- Climate Dynamics, Vol. 44, Issue 11-12
What drives the seasonality of photosynthesis across the Amazon basin? A cross-site analysis of eddy flux tower measurements from the Brasil flux network
journal, December 2013
- Restrepo-Coupe, Natalia; da Rocha, Humberto R.; Hutyra, Lucy R.
- Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 182-183
Deep Convective Transition Characteristics in the Community Climate System Model and Changes under Global Warming
journal, December 2014
- Sahany, Sandeep; Neelin, J. David; Hales, Katrina
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 27, Issue 24
The Amazon Dense GNSS Meteorological Network: A New Approach for Examining Water Vapor and Deep Convection Interactions in the Tropics
journal, December 2015
- Adams, David K.; Fernandes, Rui M. S.; Holub, Kirk L.
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 96, Issue 12
Representing the Sensitivity of Convective Cloud Systems to Tropospheric Humidity in General Circulation Models
journal, September 2011
- Del Genio, Anthony D.
- Surveys in Geophysics, Vol. 33, Issue 3-4
A Systematic Relationship between Intraseasonal Variability and Mean State Bias in AGCM Simulations
journal, November 2011
- Kim, Daehyun; Sobel, Adam H.; Maloney, Eric D.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 24, Issue 21
A Mass-Flux Scheme View of a High-Resolution Simulation of a Transition from Shallow to Deep Cumulus Convection
journal, July 2006
- Kuang, Zhiming; Bretherton, Christopher S.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 63, Issue 7
Column Water Vapor Statistics and Their Relationship to Deep Convection, Vertical and Horizontal Circulation, and Moisture Structure at Nauru
journal, October 2011
- Lintner, Benjamin R.; Holloway, Christopher E.; Neelin, J. David
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 24, Issue 20
Works referencing / citing this record:
Land–atmosphere interactions in the tropics – a review
journal, January 2019
- Gentine, Pierre; Massmann, Adam; Lintner, Benjamin R.
- Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol. 23, Issue 10